jad@whutt.att.com (John A Dinardo) (06/18/91)
The following text is from a legal complaint filed by former
Attorney General of the United States Ramsey Clark on May 9, 1991:
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INITIAL COMPLAINT
CHARGING
GEORGE BUSH, DAN QUAYLE, JAMES BAKER, DICK CHENEY,
WILLIAM WEBSTER, COLIN POWELL, NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF
AND OTHERS TO BE NAMED
WITH
CRIMES AGAINST PEACE, WAR CRIMES, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
AND OTHER CRIMINAL ACTS AND HIGH CRIMES IN VIOLATION OF
THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS, INTERNATIONAL LAW, THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AND LAWS MADE IN
PURSUANCE THEREOF.
PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
These charges have been prepared prior to the first hearing of
the Commission of Inquiry by its staff. They are based on direct
and circumstantial evidence from public and private documents,
official statements and admissions by the persons charged and
others, eyewitness accounts; Commission investigations and witness
interviews in Iraq, the Middle East and elsewhere during and after
the bombing; photographs and video tape, expert analyses,
commentary and interviews, media coverage, published reports and
accounts gathered between December 1989 and May 1991. Commission
of Inquiry hearings will be held in key cities where evidence is
available supporting, expanding, adding, contradicting, disproving
or explaining these, or similar charges against the accused and
others of whatever nationality. When evidence sufficient to
sustain convictions of the accused or others is obtained and after
demanding the production of documents from the U.S. government, and
others, and requesting testimony from the accused, offering them a
full opportunity to present any defense personally, or by counsel,
the evidence will be presented to an International War Crimes
Tribunal. The Tribunal will consider the evidence gathered, seek
and examine whatever additional evidence it chooses and render its
judgment on the charges, the evidence and the law.
Since World War I, the United Kingdom, France and the United
States have dominated the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf region and its
oil resources. This has been accomplished by military conquest and
coercion, economic control and exploitation, and through surrogate
governments and their military forces. Thus from 1953 to 1979 in
the post World War II era, control over the region was exercised
primarily through U.S. influence and control over the Gulf state
sheikdoms, Saudi Arabia, and through the Shah of Iran. From 1953-
1979 the Shah of Iran acted as a Pentagon/CIA surrogate to police
the region. After the fall of the Shah and the seizure of U.S.
Embassy hostages in Teheran, the U.S. provided military aid and
assistance to Iraq, as did the USSR, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and most
of the Emirates in its war with Iran. U.S. policy during that
tragic eight year war, 1980-1988, is probably best summed up by
Henry Kissinger's early expression, "I hope they kill each other."
Throughout the seventy-five year period from Britain's
invasion of Iraq early in World War I to the destruction of Iraq in
1991 by U.S. air power, the United States and the United Kingdom
demonstrated no concern for democratic values, military aggression,
human rights, social justice, or political and cultural integrity
in the region. The U.S. supported the Shah of Iran for 25 years,
selling him more than 20 billion dollars of advanced military
equipment between 1972 and 1978 alone. Throughout this period, the
Shah and his brutal Savak had one of the worst human rights records
in the world. The U.S. supported Iraq in its wrongful aggression
against Iran ignoring its poor human rights record.
When the Iraqi government nationalized the Iraqi Petroleum
Company in 1972, the Nixon Administration embarked on a campaign to
destabilize the Iraqi government. It was then that the U.S. first
armed and then abandoned the Kurdish people in the 1970's, costing
them tens of thousands of lives. The U.S. manipulated the Kurds
through CIA and other agencies to attack Iraq, intending to harass
Iraq while maintaining Iranian supremacy at the cost of Kurdish
lives without intending any benefit to the Kurdish people, or an
autonomous Kurdistan.
The U.S., with close oil and other economic ties to Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait, has fully supported both governments despite the
total absence of democratic institutions, their pervasive human
rights violations and the infliction of cruel, inhuman and
degrading punishments such as stoning to death for adultery and
amputation of a hand for property offenses.
The U.S., sometimes alone among nations, supported Israel when
it defied scores of U.N. resolutions concerning Palestinian rights,
during Israel's invasion of Lebanon which took tens of thousands of
lives and its continuing occupation of southern Lebanon, the Golan
Heights, the West Bank and Gaza.
The United States itself engaged in recent aggressions in
violation of international law by invading Grenada, bombing Tripoli
and Benghazi, financing the Contras in Nicaragua, UNITA in southern
Africa and supporting military dictatorships in Liberia, Chile, El
Salvador, Guatemala, the Philippines and many other places.
The U.S. invasion of Panama in December 1989 involved the same
and additional violations of international law that apply to Iraq's
invasion of Kuwait. The U.S. invasion took between 1000 and 4000
Panamanian lives. The United States government is still covering up
the death toll. U.S. aggression caused massive property
destruction throughout Panama. According to U.S. and international
human rights organization estimates, Kuwait's casualties from
Iraq's invasion and the ensuing months of occupation were in the
"hundreds," between 300 and 600. Reports from Kuwait list 628
Palestinians killed by Kuwaiti death squads since the Sabah Royal
family regained control over Kuwait.
(to be continued)
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transcribed by John DiNardo
This document was provided by
The Coalition to Stop U.S. Intervention in the Middle East
36 East 12th St., 6th Fl.
New York, NY 10003 (212) 254-5385